


Sparrowhawk

by cc tinslebee (Doitlikeagreaser)



Category: Cobra Kai (Web Series)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Character Study, Friends to Enemies to Lovers, Gen, Guilt, How Do I Tag, M/M, Minor Moon/Piper, Past Relationship(s), Platonic Female/Male Relationships, Post-Season/Series 03, Retrospective
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-28
Updated: 2021-01-28
Packaged: 2021-03-18 15:27:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,521
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28745472
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Doitlikeagreaser/pseuds/cc%20tinslebee
Summary: "If the weeks following his transformation are any indication, Eli Moskowitz's fall from grace was not as instantaneous as most people think. He may have looked the role of Hawk, but he was still the kid who knew he would have to hide his tattoo from his parents for the rest of his life."The transformation of Eli Moskowitz as recounted by Moon (with some narrative help from Demetri).
Relationships: Demetri/Eli "Hawk" Moskowitz, Moon & Demetri (Cobra Kai), Moon & Eli "Hawk" Moskowitz
Comments: 11
Kudos: 47





	Sparrowhawk

**Author's Note:**

> I just think they're neat ,:)
> 
> Supplemental: the idea of sparrowhawks isn't really touched on in this fic; I just was struggling with finding a title-- but I ended up doing a small bit of research about them while writing this and I thought they sounded kind of similar to Eli in a way.  
> I have to bring up the fact that they apparently have bluish and orange-barred underparts but are mostly brown, which is oddly reminiscent of Hawk's hair. More relevantly, it's a predator that tends to hunt garden birds in towns and cities. They're also capable of killing birds that are MUCH heavier than them, which vaguely reminded me of that scene with Brucks in season three--  
> Anyway, sorry about that uncharacteristic bird segment, I hope you enough this fic!

"If the weeks following his transformation are any indication, Eli Moskowitz's fall from grace was not as instantaneous as most people think. He may have looked the role of Hawk, but he was still the kid who knew he would have to hide his tattoo from his parents for the rest of his life."

That's what Demetri says anyway. 

"I wouldn't know," Moon replied, looking down, "I barely spared him a glance up until Yas--" she cleared her throat to disguise the slip, "Or Aisha's party, that is." She let out a long sigh, willing herself to look at Demetri as she spoke, "I was to blame for it, wasn't I?"

It occurred to her a while ago that going up to Eli at that party was the match that sparked the powder keg that was Hawk. She couldn't stand the fact that she could be partially responsible for something so volatile, even unintentionally.

"No, I wouldn't say so," Demetri brushed her off, his voice going up an octave. Demetri, the one well-intentioned and brutally honest person in her life, was lying to make her feel better about the entire situation. "I mean, if Johnny Lawrence hadn't pushed him so hard, he never would have become Hawk." Demetri's face shifted in the way it does when he's trying to keep his mouth shut to avoid trouble, something she only noticed after December. Had he always made that face? "You couldn't help that your interest alone was enough to enforce it. You didn't know."

There was that reliable Demetri honesty. 

The fact that Moon went up to Eli, let alone looked at him after his transformation was proof enough that the facade had worked. Except, this time he couldn't continue looking like Hawk, and acting anything like Eli. If he did, Moon would have known that something wasn't right, that he was still the same nerd from before.

He couldn't let that happen.

"You're right about him not being Hawk immediately, though," Moon agreed. "Even if I didn't know him as Eli back then, I liked the person I grew to know. I didn't realise it was partially him until he wasn't Eli anymore."

"Yeah... things were alright back then."

When Hawk started dating Moon, he still hung out with Demetri occasionally, though not as much. Moon would hang out with him too sometimes. She thought he was actually kind of sweet and didn't mind how talkative he could be. (Hawk, a little more mouthy than before, once remarked that only someone like Moon would be able to tolerate Demetri's personality for long. She was patient like that.) They went together to support Hawk at the tournament, both equally impressed by how far he had come.

"Still kind of shitty the move he pulled on Robby Keene, though."

"Oh yeah, absolutely."

Moon enjoyed just being around the two of them. Even with Hawk's increasingly less steady changes, there was a familiarity to them that she admired.

"It almost reminded me of my relationship with Yasmine," Moon admitted. "Only Yasmine didn't really care for me that much as time went on. She tried to hide it to save face, but she wasn't _really_ trying. With Hawk, I could tell he cared about you a lot." She shrugged, "He just didn't want anyone else to know."

There were small microaggressions that Moon should have seen coming in hindsight. The way Hawk's face crinkled when Demetri took credit for Cobra Kai's win, his tone when he told Demetri to stop talking about their past achievements with coding, despite Moon never showing disapproval in his interests, past or present.

"I never saw the warning signs. I didn't notice how Hawk gradually began to distance himself from you."

Demetri looked like he was debating what he said next. "You never did."

He was right.

She actually started spending more time with Demetri without realising it. Like when Hawk off-handedly mentioned that he would be busy with Cobra Kai the night of the big festival and Moon naturally asked Demetri to accompany her anyway.

They had become so close over that chapter of their lives that Moon had even confided in Demetri that she thought she loved him. Moon expected the skepticism that came from Demetri. How could she fall in love with someone after only a few months of knowing them? Besides, while Hawk had had his arm around Moon’s shoulder, he was keeping her at arm’s length about everything else about himself.

(She found his skepticism ironic now, considering how easily Demetri forgives the people who hurt him.)

She laughed kindly, "I always wondered why you were never nearly as uncomfortable around me as you were most girls. Especially considering you could barely talk to Yasmine for the longest time."

Demetri replied with a shrug, "You're not most girls."

He didn't elaborate and she didn't ask him to.

It was a good night, though. She enjoyed hanging out with Demetri; his honesty and oddly specific sense of humour were refreshing from the life she lived before. She even couldn't help but laugh at some of his jokes.

"I thought you were just trying to be nice," Demetri remarked, skeptically.

"Are you kidding me?" Moon smiled tenderly. "I didn't always get your jokes, but the ones I did, I thought were actually kind of neat."

Even when Hawk and the Cobra Kai students showed up unexpectedly and interrupted Miyagi-Do's performance, Moon thought things were going well. They watched the stage, stunned like the rest of the spectators. When Hawk scoped out Demetri in the crowd and lifted him on stage to be an (unwilling) part of his demonstration, Moon couldn't help but gleefully think _those are my boys,_ without really understanding why.

"But as they say, all good things must come to an end."

Then Kreese's assault on Demetri happened and the Yelp review that followed. And then there was the mall. Moon couldn't believe what she heard at the time. She didn't really want to.

"I never thought he would do that to me," Demetri said, much quieter than she had ever heard him speak. She watched as his hand ghosted over his arm, his eyes filling with a weight she couldn't quite place.

"I didn't either," she said softly, matching her volume to Demetri's.

Who would do that to someone they love? It's not like Moon thought Hawk would ever raise a hand to her; that was the furthest thing from her mind at the time. When she broke up with Hawk, it was Demetri who was front and centre in her thoughts. 

"I had... no idea," he blinked at her, astonished. "You never mentioned that was the reason you broke up."

"Yeah, well, I was trying to rid myself of the bad people in my life. I gave Yasmine a second chance because we've known each other since grade school, and I thought she deserved it. But knowing what he tried to do to you, I couldn't pretend it didn't happen. Maybe I wouldn't have felt the same if you and I hadn't gotten close," Moon admitted, "but I couldn't be complacent to a bully again."

Then, of course, there was Moon's party.

"Oh god, the party..."

Hawk had taken the news of Moon's new girlfriend surprisingly well, even if he was jealous at the time. Moon didn't need him to approve of Piper for her to be happy, but it was nice that he acted supportively at the very least.

"How is Piper, by the way?" Demetri inquired, genuinely interested in the answer.

Moon smiled brightly despite herself, "She's really good. She has a swim meet coming up at her school, so I'm going to go cheer her on." Moon let out a small, shaky sigh, one that was more relief than anything else. "I'm really grateful that I met her. Piper's just so patient and kind; she's everything I could ever hope for."

"I'm happy for you," his features brightened up a bit and she knew he meant it.

It occurred to her that they went a little off track and her face shifted accordingly. "You talked to him before he dumped beer on your head, right?"

"Yeah, I did. I thought we were doing really well too. I mean, it started and ended rockily, but for a second, I thought I had a fraction of my best friend back."

"It was his loss, not realizing it sooner," Moon offered a smile. "I still don't approve of what you pulled at the end of the night, but I won't say he didn't have it coming."

Demetri may have started something he didn't bargain for because of that stunt, but Moon soon discovered that Demetri could hold his own against his wayward best friend. She did not endorse the frenzy that went down that first day back at school but felt a sense of pride for Demetri when he put Hawk in his place.

She knew all too well that Hawk was not going to let up, but neither was Demetri if the incidents in the cafeteria and the soccer match were any indications.

Demetri, taking advantage of the way Hawk stared a bit too long at Moon, had criticised him for taking the relationship he was lucky to have for granted (before promptly knocking him on the ground). She had loved him and his ego screwed it up beyond salvation.

Moon nudged him lightly, "I guess you were speaking for both of us."

Demetri smiled weakly back, "I guess so."

And then, of course, there was the arcade...

"We don't… have to talk about that," Demetri cut in, his quiet tone returning.

Moon knew it was still a touchy subject. "Yeah, of course, we don't."

Despite Demetri's attempts to convince her to join them on December 19th, Moon wasn't present for Sam's Christmas party or the brawl that followed. She knew all about Sam’s scheme to combine the outcasted dojos, so she told Demetri that she had to spend time with her family that night and with that gentle smile of hers, told him to have fun. 

Moon’s only account of the party came from Demetri and Sam’s respective play-by-play. She and Demetri texted back and forth that night, his half-hearted complaints of boredom making her chuckle at her phone. Later, she was informed by Sam about how well the Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang students were working together, which made Moon’s free-spirited heart swell. 

Alternatively, Miyagi-Do's hasty recounts of the fight that ensued served as the only knowledge she had on the matter. It started when Bert was reportedly thrown through the LaRusso's window after attempting to aid a cat he thought was outside. Moon frowned upon hearing how the Cobra Kais went after such a sweet boy and how Kyler sought after finishing Miguel almost immediately after the fight had started.

After fighting side by side with Nathaniel and Bert, Demetri was ganged up on by two Cobra Kais, Hawk surprisingly not one of them. The hope was short-lived when they called over to him to finish the job. Demetri recollected that he swore it was over for him as he braced himself for a blow that never hit _him._

The next part was blurry for her. Bert and a few other Miyagi-Do students raved about how badass Eli and Demetri's team attack was. Their very different fighting styles in perfect harmony, using each other's edge to take out several Cobra Kai students and protect each other from harm. (Bert _may_ have exaggerated just how many Cobra Kai students they took out on their own but from the way she saw a decent number of them sulk in Demetri's presence, it seemed to be a decent amount.)

She knew she must have missed some piece of the puzzle, some missing scene. She knew it was going to take _her_ some time to warm up to Eli again after all he had done and she didn't quite understand how Demetri was so quick to forgive.

"He apologized," Demetri added casually, almost as if he had read her mind. Though if she brought it up, he would dismiss it as preposterous. _Mind-reading doesn't exist,_ he would tell her and she would passively refute that wasn't inherently true. That's who they were once they had figured out their dynamic after Hawk: the man of science and the spiritualist. It suited them, she thought.

"And you forgave him?" Moon asked, her voice ever so slightly pleading because she couldn't help herself. She needed to know why. "After everything?"

Demetri pondered for a moment before answering with certainty, "Yeah. Because he's Eli."

If Moon didn't know Demetri -- if he was just her ex-boyfriend's best friend and nothing more -- she wouldn't have known what he meant. She would have been too passive to ask, but she understood him immediately. This entire time, Moon had assumed Demetri was hanging onto the idea that Eli was still there under all the edgy tattoos and wild hair, just waiting to be pulled away from the entity that was Hawk. They realised now that Demetri's Eli was just as much of Hawk as Hawk was a part of Eli. They were both intertwined with one another, matching each other's strengths and compensating for their weaknesses. You could not separate one from the other because they balanced each other out. Just like Demetri and Eli.

Eli seemed to realise it too.

Hawk hadn't shoved Eli into a closet somewhere, never to see the light of day. Hawk existed to _protect_ Eli just as Demetri had once done. He just lost sight of the reason he created Hawk in the first place and was led astray. 

Then there was Demetri, who forgave so easily because he cherished his bonds despite their wrongdoings. Was being grateful to have your best friend enough to forgive a tarnished bond and a broken bone? It wasn't. Yet Demetri accepted Hawk's apology without hesitation. Because Hawk was Eli and Eli was being honest. If Demetri knew anything, he knew that.

That left one more question.

"Does he... treat you well?" Moon asked tentatively. 

She sees them in the school halls, Eli at Demetri's side, underneath his arm. They chat, and sometimes she listens, but she always notices how Demetri doesn't talk as much as he used to. There's room in the conversation for Eli now. 

(Moon never said a word about the time she accidentally found them stealing kisses from each other in the privacy of an empty room. Demetri had held Eli’s face in his hands, looking more comfortable than he had in a long time. Maybe it was the way his shoulders seemed a little more relaxed or how Eli’s hands ghosted carefully just above Demetri’s hips as if he was still apprehensive about touching him. No matter the reason, Demetri looked a little more in control of the situation and that put her at ease. Though they never noticed her in the doorway, Moon knew that she was intruding on something private and quickly left them to their moment.)

"Yeah," Demetri smiled softly, "He does."

**Author's Note:**

> If you made it this far, thank you so much for reading! Demetri and Moon's subtle friendship is super fascinating to me, and while I probably didn't do them nearly enough justice, it was fun to write this!  
> If you enjoyed this, please consider leaving a kudos! Comments are much appreciated, but please keep it constructive/positive! Thank you in advance; I hope you all have a lovely day!


End file.
